New Beginnings, Old Memories
by fork104
Summary: If you loved Cathy Cassidy's Lucky Star then try this re-mixed version. Hope you like it!
1. Chapter 1

"Ok, tell me, what can you see?" I stared at him blankly. I hate inkblot cards. "Come on Morgan you've gotta talk"

I gave him another stare and raised my eyebrow.

It's not like I'm emo or anything I just don't see the point in talking, I mean animals do it all the time, they communicate without using words. When I was a kid I never talked to anybody but my best mate, I was quiet but at the same time I wasn't shy.

"Whatever," he said raking his hand through his hair the way he does when he gives up, "Your new foster family will be here soon."

I poke my tongue out at Dave and get my suitcase.

I honestly can look after myself I don't know why the social workers had to get involved. I don't even get why they call them social workers in the first place, they're the last people I'd want to socialize with.

Lots of different people come into this waiting room. Some come here because it is best for them and they know it and others are forced here. I fall under the category of "forced". Nobody asked me if I wanted their so called "help". Nobody asked me if I wanted a new family because, as far as they think, I don't have one.

A happy and obviously rich family comes through the door.

They walk up to the register and then the receptionist points to me. The family come over and introduce themselves.

Great, I'm staying with a Mr. and Mrs. Brown.

Mr. Brown goes to pick up the suitcase and is taken aback when he realizes it's a lot lighter than he must have thought. Hey, I'm more of a use what I can find sort of girl.

We walk out of the Social Services place and I catch a glimpse of a little mouse head graffitied on the wall. I have to turn away but my eyes have already blurred up.

The Browns lead me to their car, which is a Lambor-freakin-Ghini. They open the door for me and I sit down on their plush, leather seats. Pretty comfy.

They ask questions like: "What my favourite food is?" (No reply) "Do I play any sports?" (No reply) "Have I ever had a foster family before?" (No reply) "Where do you come from?" (No reply).

And they say things like: "We have a daughter called Sammy and a son called Harry." (No comment) "We live very close to the school." (No comment) and "You will have your own room, which used to be the guestroom." (No comment).


	2. Chapter 2

We arrive at their house which could put my house to shame any day.

Mr. Brown opens the door and puts my suitcase down.

"Harry, come down here and help with the suit cases, ah, case!"

A tall blond haired boy comes down the stairs. He's not ugly; actually he's pretty cute; but not really my type. He smiles at me and I smile back. He grabs hold of my suitcase and, expecting it to be really heavy, he almost falls down.

"Also Harry, please show Morgan to her room," calls out Mrs. Brown.

"So, I'm Harry, as you probably already know, um, I'm fourteen and I'm just over there." He says pointing to a door down the corridor, "The room next to your's is Sam's. She's thirteen same as you. And this is your room here, it used to be the guestroom but now it's yours." I thank him with a nod and a smile and he sets my suitcase down. "Just set yourself up, oh and dinner is at 6 sharp, your call."

I start to take out my things. There's a cupboard in the corner so I put my clothes in there.

All my clothes are neatly hung and there is still tons of space.

There is also a desk with a laptop on it with a sticky note on the top: 'COMPLEMENTS OF YOUR NEW FAMILY'. The words 'new family' keep running through my mind. These people aren't my new family they're just temporary carers, not that I need a carer.

Besides I already have a family. I already have a mum. I already have a dad, and I already have two brothers and a sister. I also have a half-brother and wouldn't be surprised if I have a half-sister as well. And maybe a couple of steps'.

I take a quick look at my watch and find it's almost six.

I shut my suitcase and head down to the kitchen.

I actually don't know where the kitchen is so I just sort of hunt around the house until I find it. I walk into a very white room which actually was the kitchen. I look around but there is no one there.

A big sign is stuck on the fridge:

HOUSE RULES:

1. You may leave the house whenever you like but you must leave a note or tell someone.

2. You must be home by 10:00 pm.

3. All chores must be completed.

4. You are to come home straight away from school before leaving again.

"That last one was put in last week when Sam didn't tell anyone she wasn't coming straight home."

I turn around to see Harry standing in the door way.

"Sorry, but all the other take-aways are closed so you have a choice between McDonalds or McDonalds."

I make a laughing sort of noise and thankfully he gets it and I don't have to reply.

Just then Mr. and Mrs. Brown come in with armfuls of Maccas'. For people who are rich they sure don't eat like it. Come to think of it they are a little podgy, except Harry, maybe he works out.

We all sit down except Sam. As if she was reading my mind Mrs. Brown asks, "Where's Sammy?"

"I think she went out with her friends." replies Harry. "Oh, well she better be home by 10 or she's grounded."

I slowly pick at my food. I've had McDonalds so many times I'm sort of sick of it.


	3. Chapter 3

After dinner I go back to my room to put the rest of my things away.

I get my pinboard out from my suitcase. I carry it around to every place I go to.

I reach up and hang it above the desk. I stare at the pictures for a while until my eyes get blurry.

I pull out my favourite toy. He may be a little charred but he still resembles a mouse. He's my most treasured possession. If anything happened to him all those memories would be wiped.

I lay him on my bed and I can't take my eyes off the billboard. There's the photo of us dancing at the solstice festival and us at our little oasis and the photo of us sleeping in the tree house before Finn's birthday. I get to the last photo and I start crying.

The next thing I know it's dark. I must have cried myself to sleep.

I can here people's voices outside my room. You can thank my mother for my sense of curiosity.

I put my ear to the door. "Mom and Dad are gonna kill you. It's way past curfew."

"Whatever, I just couldn't stand being here when she gets here."

"She's not that bad, she's really nice but quite …"

"Yeah aka Emo. She's probably some tramp they found on the streets. I can't even believe I will be associated with her. There goes my popularity. You know what; I'll just pretend I don't know her at school."

"That's harsh, Sam you haven't even met her yet."

I decide to head back to bed. I'm glad I don't talk, just in case I end up talking to her.

I wake to Of Monsters and Men's 'Little Talks', best song of all time. I must have left my earphones in.

I walk out of the room and bump into a girl I had never seen before, I'm guessing it's Sam.

I nod and smile at her but she walks away and I hear her say "Air raider." under her breath.

Yeah, I'm not making friends with her anytime soon.

I walk into the kitchen just as Mrs. Brown is setting the table for breakfast.

"Hey, honey. Aren't you dressed?" I give her a puzzled look.

"Oh, Harry was supposed to give you your uniform since Sam was out." She goes into a little closet at the end of a long corridor and brings back an ironed set of clothes. I've never had to wear a uniform before.

I take it back to my room and examine the clothes more carefully.

The uniform is different shades of blue. Not a bad choice. There's a dark blue blazer with light blue around the edges, a pleated skirt, two long and short sleeved shirts, dark blue stockings, white socks, T-bar shoes and a tie.

I get dressed quickly, assuming that we're catching the bus.

I shove a pencil case and empty exercise books into my duffle and check the time, 8:00, I must be late.

I head out the door and bump into somebody. Not again. I look up expecting to see Sam but instead it's Harry.

"Hey, what's the hurry?" He looks me up and down then at my duffle. "No need to rush, the school's just around the corner. You still have time to have breakfast if you haven't already."

I give him a smile and calm down. At least I'm not late for my first day of school.

I go down to have some breakfast (toast).

I must have taken ages because it's already 8:25.

I grab my duffle just as Harry walks into the room. Good, cause I got no idea where I'm going.

"Morgan, you coming?" I follow him out the door and to the bus stop.

"I usually walk to school cos Sam likes to take the bus herself but cos of her late night she slept in so she won't be catching the bus anytime soon."

Harry gets on the bus and walks straight to the back. I take a seat at the front and put my iPod on shuffle. Ah, Evermore.


	4. Chapter 4

Our stop was the last; being close to school so I don't get through one song before we get off.

Mrs. Brown told me that she had enrolled me and that all I had to do was go to the office. Thankfully there are a lot of signs around the school.

I get to the office and am forced to speak, "Um, Morgan Campbell, I'm new, ah, Mrs. Brown enrolled me."

"Yes, Ms. Brow-"

"Campbell, my last name is Campbell."

"Ah, Morgan. You're schedule. It has your class rooms and lessons on it, your locker key, number 187, and your school planner which has any other information. Oh, and a late pass into class."

"Thank you Miss."

Well number 187, I hope they're ordered. The first locker that I see is 67 then 68, 69, 70. I'm on the right track. I find my locker and open it. It is covered in graffiti and has a slight, ah, scent to it. There's nothing to put in it really. I grab my duffle and head to my first class which is registry, oh.

It's slightly awkward walking into a class late but then a teacher walks up to me.

"You must be Morgan Brown. I'm Miss Nickleson."

"Ah, it's Morgan Campbell actually."

"Sorry Morgan, follow me." I follow her into the class and everybody's heads turn.

"Class this is Morgan Campbell. I expect you'll all make her feel welcome. You can sit over there."

I walk back to my locker to get my lunch when I realize that I totally forgot to pack any, great.

I rummage through my bag hoping for some loose change, 67p, not even a quid. Maybe they sell cheap. Preppy school, cheap, not in a million years.

The cafeteria is almost full. I'll see if there's anything I can get, probably not, but I need something to kill time. Well I could get a lollypop, but there would be no point.

I take my sketch book and head out the door.

I love heights. It makes me feel like I'm on top of the world.

I look for a good tree to climb. Climbable trees, not enough coverage, need my privacy.

There's a ladder leading up to the roof of one of the buildings, perfect.

I pull out my sketch book and start to draw.

Most of my book is filled with these sorts of drawings, a crashed birthday cake, a bonfire and a charred mouse toy.

My eyes start to tear up but I blink them back. I sit there until the bell rings, staring at nothing.

I finally come out of my trance and climb down.

I'm walking to my locker when a bunch of girls walk past me, shoving me with their shoulders

"Emo." I catch one of them say.

It was none other than Sam. I should have known.

"Aren't you going to say anything, oh wait I forgot, you can't, shame."

She smiles to herself proud of her comment.

She looks me up and down and sneers. I'm about to give her a piece of my mind when I realize there's no point.

"You don't belong here; go back to the streets where you came from."

I ignore her and go through my stuff. She and her friends leave laughing. Does she not have anything better to do?


	5. Chapter 5

I have a meeting with Dave today after school so I have to leave straight away, but then I remember the list of rules on the fridge, thanks Sam.

I grab my bag and head out of the school.

I reach the end of the street until I realize I have no idea where I'm going.

I stand around aimlessly trying to find Google Maps on my phone.

It wouldn't be so hard if all these houses didn't look the same.

"Hey, Morgan." I turn around to see who it is. To my relief, it's Harry, "Lost?" I nod.

We haven't even turned the corner when someone yells at us to stop.

"You there, turf out ya pockets!"

We do as we were told, I have my phone and 67p.

Harry has his phone, a nail, two buttons, a paper clip and a beer bottle cap.

"Turn around and put it in the sack!" We do as he says.

I dare not meet his eyes. I'm about to put my stuff in the sack when Harry nudges me. I look at him and he looks at the guy, signaling for me to do the same.

I do and find he's staring back at me. I meet his eyes and he takes a step back.

"Here, uh, you can have your stuff back, actually, take the whole bag. Sorry for all the, uh, trouble. I was never here." he says bolting.

I turn to Harry and he's in complete shock. I open the bag and we look in.

Phones, iPods, money/wallets (lots) and an assortment of, ah, stuff.

Harry looks up, "How did you do that, I think you scared him. He was as white as a ghost?"

I shrug, not knowing what to say. I must admit, he did look the slightest bit familiar.

"Oh well, do you want to return all this stuff, it is yours?"

I get my notebook out: PRANKCALLS? (YOU'RE TALKING).

We both smile villainously. We agree to do it when we get back.

"You know, you're actually pretty cool for someone who doesn't talk."

I look at him and he reconsiders his comment,

"Ok, you're actually pretty cool for someone who doesn't talk, much."

I give him my 'that's better' look.

We walk for a bit in silence when he asks

"If you don't mind me asking, why don't you talk? You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

I consider telling him why but I decide to go with the 'cos I want to look cool (I'm not sure how to answer that question anyway)'.

"What bugs me is how that guy just ran off. If you don't talk then there's no way you would've said something to that guy unless you talk to random strangers which would be really weird, no offence."

I laugh and he takes that as a yes. I shake my head in a 'no way' way.

We get home and I remember I have that meeting with Dave.

I scribble it down and show it to Harry.

"That's okay my friend was coming over today anyway." I head for the door when Sam walks in and gives me the death glare.

I pick up my bag and head for the bus stop.

The school bus stop is shared with the regular stop so that wasn't hard to find.

I get on the bus and set my iPod to shuffle. The first song is One Direction's new single. Don't judge me.

I get off and practice how I'm going to show how I feel about this, ah, situation. I choose the glare and say nothing approach.

As I'm walking I see a little girl sitting under a bus shelter holding a cup out. I dig through my pockets for that 69p I had. I put it in the cup and the little girl gives me a great big smile. In return I smile back.


	6. Chapter 6

The building is grey with peeling paint and graffiti covering anywhere the paint isn't peeling.

Inside isn't much better. I think they were trying to go for the colourful, we're trying to help you approach and failed miserably.

I take my seat and read the same notice I've read for the past however long I've been forced to be here.

It's about not talking to strangers. I have to try to stifle a laugh considering our encounter with whoever that guy was.

Dave calls me in and I take my seat.

"Ok Morgan. I'm required to ask you some questions about your new foster family. One, do you feel as though you fit in?" I nod.

"Two, are you having any problems?" Yeah, Sam. I shake my head.

"And three, are they abusive?"

I raise my eyebrow as if to say they wouldn't hurt a fly.

"Good. Now if there is anything you would like to talk about? Struggles, anything? You can trust me, you do know that?" I nod.

Even if I did trust him not to tell anyone I still wouldn't say anything anyway.

I walk out of the room and catch a glimpse of a guy sitting in the waiting room.

I have to do a double take. The second time round he notices and smiles. I smile back and notice his hands are covered in pai


	7. Chapter 7

I catch the next bus home but instead of going straight home I stop at Tesco.

I hunt down the trolleys and head for the craft isle.

I grab paper, crayons, pencils, glue, scissors, paint, brushes and face paint.

Then I go in search for a cheap fold-out table.

I'm at the register and remember I gave the last of my money to the little girl. I whip out my card and put my pin number in.

I'm a woman on a mission.

I set my table up at the far end of the train station.

It's not the nicest of areas but that's where more people need it.

I put a sign up saying FREE ARTS & CRAFT PLUS FACE PAINTING and lay all my materials down.

When I started to travel with my mum to festivals we would make lanterns and paint each other's faces. Mum could turn anything into a masterpiece. She say's I got my talent of art from her.

A train pulls into the station and a crowd of people file off.

A little girl walks of the train and looks around nervously.

She's by herself and I'm guessing she's lost her mum.

She starts to get anxious. She sits down and a single tear runs down the side of her face.

"Hey," I say warmly, "Would you like to have your face painted?"

She smiles and nods.

She follows me back and I sit her down.

"Now, what would you like me to turn you into?"

"I wanna be a puppy."

I grab my paint brush and dip it into the brown face paint.

She points to the pink pot, "Pink!"

I clean the brush and dip it into the pink paint.

I paint the whole face pink first then add some purple around one of the eyes and paint the mouth on with the tongue sticking out.

"My name's Morgan. What's yours?" I ask whilst painting some freckles round her now black nose.

"I'm Sarah and I'm seven. How old are you?"

"I'm thirteen. Hey Sarah, would you like to be a princess dog?"

She nods, "A fairy princess dog!"

So I add a tiara to the corner of her forehead but I'm not sure how to make it a fairy dog though so I just add some sparkles everywhere.

I pull out a mirror from my bag and let her look at herself.

"Wow! I wish my mummy could see this."

She looks sad and I ask her if she wants to make something.

I give her some paper and show her how to make a twirling helicopter.

"If you hold it up high, when you let go it will twirl to the ground, watch."

We add some glitter to it for decoration.

"You have some glitter all over your face!" she squeals. I go to take out the mirror and realize my face is covered in it. Just then I notice a worried woman looking around frantically.

I point her out to Sarah, "Is that your mummy?"

"Mummy!" She says jumping out of her chair.

She drags her mum over to me, "Thank you for taking care of Sarah for me. I was starting to get worried that somebody had run away with her."

"That's ok Ma'am."

"Say thank you to, what's your name dear?"

"Morgan,"

"Say thank you to Morgan, Sarah."

"Thank you Morgan."

"No problems."

I'm about to pack up when a group of girls runs up to me followed by two boys. "

Can we please have our faces painted?" One of them asks.

"Sure, of course." The two boys finally catch up.

"Hey Chan, this girl is going to paint our faces!" I look up at them.

"On one condition…" The one obviously not Chan says.

I raise an eyebrow.

"That we get our faces painted too."

"Course."

"Well Chan, prepare yourself. See my friend Chan here has never had a girl touch his face before," The other boy says.

I raise an eyebrow again.

"Now which one of you girls is going first?"

"I am!" The oldest of the four girls says sitting down in the chair.

"Hey, I thought I was going first," whines the not Chan guy.

"Ladies first." I paint the first girls face a dog, similar to Sarah's, the second a cat and the third and fourth (twins I think) a mixture of rainbows and love hearts.

The last girl gets up and the not Chan guy quickly sits in the chair, "I'm Fitz by the way, and you may be…?" Finally I can stop calling him the guy who isn't Chan.

"Morgan," I reply. "Now what can I turn you into today, Fitz?"

"I would like to be...SPIDERMAN!" He does the whole squirt web stuff out of his hands thing.

"Okay…" As I'm painting his face red I can't help notice his eyes.

The thing about eyes is that everyone's are different. No two pairs of eyes are the same. Each belonging to a different person and his look strangely familiar.

For the second time today I have recognized some stranger.

"Um, Fitz," Chan says tugging at his sleeve, "It's almost five, my dad's got some important business people coming over and he'll thump me if I'm not there."

"Well, we'd better be off, but hey, maybe you could give me a call sometime?" Fitz says slipping a piece of paper into my hand and leaves.


	8. Chapter 8

This time I really do pack up my stuff. I love making other people happy, it makes me happy too. I take the tube back to the social workers place and work my way back home.

I walk into the house and Mrs. Brown starts asking questions, "So dear, how was your first day of school?" She makes it sound like I'm in prep again. I give her my 'it was alright' look and walk off to my room.

I flop down on my bed and stare up at the ceiling. At home I had all my posters on my ceiling because I would usually just stare up at it for most of the day just daydreaming. I put on some music and lay there for a while. I slowly drift into sleep. I love sleeping. I don't have dreams like other people. Other people dream of things that are impossible, like flying or being chased by monsters. I dream about things that could really happen. I virtually have a whole other life in my dreams. Sometimes the dreams will be the same except the people will be different depending on whom I met that day. I have had the same series of dreams for the past few years or so. I relive the best years of my life (my only source of sanity) every time I go to bed. I'm about to go into complete sleep when I get a sudden urge to have to go to the toilet.

I walk out of my room and bump straight into someone, "Sorry." OMG did I just say that. Everyone cranes their necks to look at me. Harry is gobsmaked and surprisingly, Sam is too. I don't even look up to see who I had actually bumped into. I scurry off back into my room, shocked at how easily that slipped out.


	9. Chapter 9

I plonk myself down on my bed recapping what had just happened. Ok, so I walked out, normal, I bump into someone, normal (sort of), I said sorry involuntarily, not so normal. It just came out without me even having to think about it, it felt . . . I don't know, right.

I decide to just brush it off, it never happened. Just then the urge of using the toilet comes back but this time I check to see if there's anyone out there. No one, perfect.

I come out of the toilet and I can see Sam and here friends hovering over Harry's door. "OMG! Did you here that he is totally crushing on you," whispered her friend who was later confirmed as Billy. "You too would make the cutest couple," Says another, "Quote on quote, 'The sister always falls for the brothers best friend'" All the girls start to squeal. Just then Harry's door opens and the girls fling back, acting casual. Harry shoots a weird look at Sam. Harry walks out of his room followed by, you wouldn't believe who, but the guy from Dave's office.

I scurry back into my room but Harry pulls me back, "You know how mum gets when we're not on time for dinner." He's right. I don't want to get on the wrong side of her. I head for the stairs when I hear snickering coming from behind me. My natural instincts tell me to turn around but I have to fight the urge cos I can't be stuffed dealing with Sam.

Dinner was some sort of chicken ah, thing. It tasted a lot better than I looked. Sam had taken her dinner up to her room to eat with her friends and do her nails or something. Doesn't she know that eating and doing your nails is very, very dangerous. Well I guess not. Harry had also taken his food up as well so I was left by myself. I didn't feel very hungry as the sorry thing was still going through head (still working on the whole forgetting thing).


	10. Chapter 10

I didn't wake up until Harry started banging on my door telling me it's 20 to 9.

I hadn't slept much that night. Bet you can guess the reason for that.

I quickly get dressed and pack my bag. Shove some food down my throat and by that point Sam and Harry had both left.

I guess I'm walking.

I walk half way there when I check my watch, 9: 50.

What, how is that possible. There's no point going to school know and the train station is just across the road.

I caught the train to the place were I had been the day before except this time I just decided to saunter around.

The place was, well, it's not the safest looking place in the world but hey, some ones gotta live there.

I walk up to a building with a big phoenix spray painted onto one side. I can here a bunch of yelling and crashing coming from inside.

I decide to check it out. I walk in and I see a scruffy looking guy threatening a woman with a knife.

I don't know what propelled me in to immediate action but when I find out I'm gonna punch it in the mouth so hard it's gonna be pooping it's teeth out for weeks.

I grabbed the knife out of the guys hand by the sharp end (smart right) looking into his eyes before leaving, knife in [bloody] hand.

…WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!

I sat on a bench and cleaned my wound.

The cut was fairly deep and I didn't have a big enough bandage to cover it.

I went to the nearest doctor's to get it fixed up.

The doctor didn't look to fazed by this and didn't ask to many questions.

He bandaged it up and told me it will be healed in about three weeks.

I still have the knife but what the hell am I supposed to do with it now. I can't take it home. If Mr and Mrs Brown found this, what would they think. And Dave, what if he got word of this. I'd be out on the streets.

I walk around some more till I find a park.

I sit on the swings and re-cap on everything that has happened to me so far.

One, I recognise the guy from Dave's office.

Two, I recognise the guy who tried to rob us and he gave us all the stuff he had stolen, weird.

Three, I recognise Fitz whom I had never seen in my whole entire life.

Four, the guy from Dave's office is Harry's friend and five, I take a knife out of a random and a very scary guy's hand whilst he's threatening someone with it.

Right, my life could not get any weirder.

Time flies and I end up day dreaming about a time when none and I mean NONE of anything that has happened, well, happened.

A time when it wasn't this complicated.

I swear, at that moment I fell asleep or went into some trance cos I found myself sprawled across the ground looking like a spaz.

A couple people stared but that was about it, not the most embarrassing thing that has happened to me so far.

My phone alerted me that I had a new text from Harry:

Harry: Where are you? You weren't at school today. Mum's gonna get pissed!

I check the time, 3:30, great. I catch the train back to the better parts of London.


	11. Chapter 11

Nothing much happened when I got home yesterday.

I got asked about my hand from well, everyone (except Sam).

I gave the same response: my it was nothing look and a shrug.

The rest of the day was pretty boring as well.

Went to school, got lunch this time.

Climbed up onto the roof, didn't come down till the bell went.

Came home, no surprise robbery.

Ate food, did homework.

Nothing spectacular.

Sam's friends were there too. I over heard them talking about Mr and Mrs Brown leaving for the weekend and that they were going to have some big raver. One of them made a definite mention that I was NOT invited. Then Sam said something about me being a butler.

She's got to be kidding me if she thinks she's getting me to be her butler.

But seriously, I think today was THE most boring day ever. It went sooo slow.

I was just about to fall asleep in boredom when Harry starts bashing down my door.

"Morgan! You in there," he yells.

"Mhmm," I grown.

I get up and open the door.

"You still got that bag of stuff?" he asks.

I had completely forgotten about that. I think I put it…somewhere.

I scribble something down onto a piece of paper and show it Harry as I hand him the bag.

"Thank you oh boredom buster," he reads pulling a face. "Who says your joining us," he says smirking.

I take the bag back from him.

"Alright, I say so," he says taking the bag back, smirking again. He is actually pretty good looking. I'm surprised he doesn't have a girlfriend, or maybe he does, I have no idea.

I follow him into his room and just my luck, the Dave's office guy is there too.

"I don't think you two have been properly introduced," Harry says, "Morgan, Martin. Martin, Morgan."

I take a few steps back. I haven't heard that name for awhile.

"Hey, you're the girl from Dave's office," Martin says.

I nod.

"Hope I didn't hurt you when I bumped into you the other day." So it was him.

I shake my head.

"Anyone for prank calls?" Harry says way to excitedly, holding up the bag.

We all do this fist pump in the air thing and turf the bag onto the ground. My phone's not in there cos I got it out when the guy gave it back, just in case you were wondering.

Harry grabs the nearest phone and searches the contacts. Me and Martin, it feels so weird calling him that, plopped ourselves down on the gigantic beanbag whilst Harry sat on the bad.

He picked a random contact and put it on speaker.

"Hello, Casey, is that you?" the voice on the other end of the line says.

"No, no. This is Rami from uh, British Telecom." He says putting on a good Indian accent.

"Nooo, it's not. This is Casey. I have you on caller ID."

"Nooo, this is Rami from British Telecom. Would you like to buy our twelve month pla-"

"Casey, you do the worst Indian accent ever."

By this time me and Martin are cracking up and Harry is close to explosion.

"No this Rami from British Telecom. Would you like to buy our twelve month plan for only £99.99?"

"Argh, Casey, you are SO annoying!" she says and hangs up.

We burst into laughing fits and Harry rolls right of the bed. All of us holding our sides.

We went through every phone and did the same.

The best ones were ones where the people actually started a conversation with the so called telemarketer.

But THE funniest one was when this girl picked up thinking that we were her ex and started going on and on about how she wants him to come back to her. She was rambling on for ages. When we didn't answer she got all cut and started screaming her had off and complaining that he was no good anyway.

We were there for ages after we got through all the phones and decided to laugh our asses of at random peoples drivers licence photos.

I think I may of drifted of to sleep after that because the next thing I know I've been woken up by voices, really LOUD voices.

"Dude you are so pathetic." I hear Harry say, "It is so obvious that you like her." He must be talking about Sam. "If that was me and I had a gorgeous girl just lying on me then I would you know, put my arm around her."

"Yeah, but what if she doesn't like me? It would be really awkward."

"Dude, she hasn't spoken a word since she moved here and then you come and bump into her and she says sorry."

"Yeah but she didn't even look up at me, she didn't even see who she had actually bumped into. Besides, it was probably just common curtesy."

Could they be talking about me. No noway, thy couldn't be talking about me, could they.

"Look, here's some more evidence. I've seen her sleep, she wriggles and never keeps still." That sounds so peto of him, "But look at her now. She's completely STILL. SHE. IS COMFORTABLE. IN. YOUR. ARMS."

"She's not in my arms,"

"Well she soon will be because if you don't put your arm around her imma tell the whole world who tagged all those walls."

After a long pause (probably them staring off) I feel and arm creep around my shoulders.

"Look at you, you hopeless romantic you."

"Whatever."

"Please Martin. You couldn't hide that smile if your life depended on it… and neither can she."


	12. Chapter 12

The next day I wake to find myself still in Martin's arms. Harry sprawled in an unnatural way on his bed fast asleep. Then I realise just how comfortable Martin is. His body seems to fit mine perfectly… it feels so, familiar.

I unlock my phone to be blinded by bright lights and the picture of us in the tree house, just like on my pinboard.

I turn the brightness down and, after my eyes re-adjust, check the time.

It's five in the morning. How on earth did I wake up this early considering that I fell asleep so late.

I get up out of Martin's arms and walk out to the bathroom.

I don't think that I have ever been up this early before and I have no idea what on earth to do. I can't go back to sleep because that means either trying to wiggle my way back into Martins arms or go sleep in my own bed leaving Martin to think that I don't like him. Not that I do, let's make that clear.

I walk into the kitchen to find something to eat cos I am STARVING. I had two bowls of cornflakes, three slices of toast and had just started to pour some pancake mixture into the pan when Harry and Martin walked in.

"Oh! pancakes!" Harry says excitedly.

He goes to swipe some of the already made pancakes from the plate but I order him to sit down with my spatula. He does so and I shove some onto his plate.

"Hhh, don't I get any?" Martin asks in mock horror.

I answer his question by shoving pancake into his mouth.

"Mmmmmm. These pancakes are the most delicious pancakes I have EVER tasted!"

After 10 minutes those greedy boys had drained me of all my mixture and I had to make myself a whole new batch.

I, because I am so awesome, topped my pancakes with cinnamon and vanilla dust, bananas, maple syrup and my signature ingredient, smarties.

I walk into the lounge, I don't think I've been in here before, to find suitcases packed and ready to go. Oh, yeah. Mr and Mrs Brown are going away for the weekend.

This is going to be interesting…


	13. Chapter 13

The day so far had gone fairly normal. Harry was out, Sam was out (not that that's a bad thing) and Mr and Mrs Brown were also out so I was home by myself.

There's actually not that much to do in such a big house so I decide to hunt around and actually find out what other rooms they have.

I walk into the lounge, surprisingly I have never been in here yet, and flop onto the couch and turn the telly on.

WHO THE FUDGE ARE THESE PEOPLE! They have like a gazillion channels.

I flick through the channels until I found what I was looking for, Nickelodeon. Yeah, I'm a little kid at heart.

Had a mini fan girl attack when I saw that Spongebob was on.

"Face it Spongebob, you're not going to get your licence!" I yell at the television.

By now you're probably VERY confused. Just to clarify, I talk when I want to, I talk to make other people happy and I talk when I think it is needed. In this case, it was all three of the reasons. Telling Spongebob that he is never going to get his licence is indeed needed, it makes me happy and I want to, so yeah.

Spongebob finishes and some other show comes on.

I flick through the other 9,999,999,999,999 channels. Nothing to exiting.

I settle on a border security marathon, always gets me laughing my butt off.

Just as border security ends Martin walks in.

"Hey, Harry home?" he asks.

I shake my head.

"Watcha doing then?"

I point to the blank television screen.

"Ah, well, if your not to busy watching a blank screen then would you like to have a guided tour around the city, knowing Harry he probably hasn't done that yet?"

I nod, getting up and grabbing my phone.

"Touristy or non touristy tour?" he asks holding up both hands. I point to the second hand: non touristy.

"I don't actually live round here, I live closer to the centre of London," he says, "but I'm over here most of the time anyway."

He shows me the milkbar, newsagent, the newly refurbished mall and the library. We sit on the curb eating ice-cream and counting the cars that pass.

Hours fly by, just sitting, talking, laughing. Reminds me of old times, before everything went wrong.

The sun starts to come down and Martin says that we should head back home now, the streets start to get rough at night.


	14. Chapter 14

I must admit, sitting with Martin, Made me feel so complete a feeling I haven't felt in ages.

I've felt so empty like something was missing, in fact something was missing and I've known exactly what it was since I was seven.

My best friend in the whole world was the missing thing. Haven't seen him since I was seven.

~~ Flashback~~

"Mummy, why is that man taking Mouse?" I ask sniffling slightly.

"They're going to take him to live closer to his mum," she says rubbing my back.

"Does that mean I'm not going to see him anymore?"

"I'm afraid so dear."

It's then that the tears start to fall.

"We should start heading off now," a man with one hand on Mouse's back and another holding a cup of coffee says, "our flight leaves soon and I don't want to miss it."

"Say goodbye to Mouse, Morgan. You might not see hi-" Mum starts to say, but I'm already halfway down the corridor, running towards Mouse.

I tackle him in a big bear hug, forgetting that he just came out of hospital for third degree burns.

"I'm gonna miss you, Mouse." I say wiping the tears away.

"Me too. But Dave told to me that my new family won't let be bring pets so can you look after him," he says, handing over his most prized possession: a little toy mouse, slightly charred on one side but none the less important.

"You givin' him to me," I say astounded.

"Yeah, but you gotta look after him, ok, he was in the accident as well."

"I promise, promise, promise to never let anything happen to him." I say crossing my heart.

"I know. You're my best friend, Morgan."

"And you're my best friend too, Martin."

I give him one last huge hug before I watch him leave.

I start crying again and Finn comes to comfort me, "Hey, hey, hey, it's alright Morgan. You'll see him again," he looks me square in the eye and continues, "It's not luck that you two are best friends, it's fate, and even though you're far apart, you're still there, by each others sides, no matter what. And one day, you'll find your ways back to each other, even if you didn't plan to.

~~End Of Flashback~~

I didn't really understand what Finn meant by that until I got a little older, and now I look back at what he said everyday, hoping that today will be the day.


	15. Chapter 15

Well the day had started fairly well, had breakfast, brushed teeth, got dressed, but that's only half of it.

You could see it in Sam's eyes, she had something big up her sleeve… and boy was I right.

It turned out that she had put flyers up all around town; her biggest mistake being: ALL WELCOME.

It started with her friends coming over. They cranked the music up, attracting more people who slowly turned into about thirty, maybe forty. The majority old enough to drive.

It got uncontrollable from there. They brought caskets of beer, cracked open the liquor cases and basically trashed the place from head to toe.

Right now I'm trying to find my wallet, dodging drunks and avoiding people sucking face, to pay for the fifty boxes of pizza some retard ordered.

I'm officially broke.

I decide to take refuge in my room but am shocked to see that it's already "taken".

I trudge around the house trying to, well, I don't actually know what I was doing. I think I was just trying to avoid eye contact with… everyone. I tried to look occupied so some random doesn't start talking to me.

The music was pumping and all over the house you could see people completely tipsy or with their tongues down someone's throat, and it wasn't just the randoms. I saw Sam making out with, I can't quite tell, I can only see the back of him. She had a bottle of what looks like whisky in her free hand. I walk around a discarded pizza box trying to see who it is. My heart skips a beat when I see none other than Martin.

Not that I care or anything. I just didn't think he was her type and stuff. I just can't imagine them together.

Martin pulls away, catching my eye at the last second before I turn to walk out of the room.

My head's spinning with all these questions. What does he see in her? She's a lowlife bitch who doesn't have the slightest bit of kindness or consideration towards anyone but herself. She dresses like a slut, looks like a slut, talks like a slut and probably thinks like one too. There wouldn't be enough words in a dictionary dedicated to words that would be otherwise bleeped to describe her. Not to mention she's a massive pain in the ass, but I wouldn't say this to her face because, unlike her, I have some self-respect and dignity. I swear, if I wasn't brought up properly she'd have fists full of this stuff everyday.

I calm my brain down by grabbing a bottle of, uh, pure spring water from the water springs of Vanuatu with added vitamins and minerals to improve the skin tone and the de-wrinkle of the foreline and cheek bones… right.

I'm not sure who it was but someone just pulled the plug on the music. I hear lots of deep voices and threats to use tasers. From the sounds of it they're going through our stuff. I poke my head around the side of the door to see what's going on.

The whole house has been cleared of the "guests", but in their place stand Sam, Harry, Martin and two police officers.

One of them spots me and calls me to sit down with the others.

I stare at him intently, he looks familiar, I've definitely seen him somewhere, sometime.

"I'm afraid I'll have to take you guys down to the police station and from there we'll have to call your parents," the other says.

We follow them into the police car.

I'm last in and am squished up against the window and Harry.

The police station is on the other side of town closer to were the real action is.

We get out and I'm really starting to get freaked. I've been in a police station before, both not my fault. Mouse was going through this phase where he stole stuff and I guess I got caught up in all that.

"Now Martin, this is your fourth offence," the police officer states, "thou this is the first that's not vandalism related."

It's not just me, but Sam is also surprised. We both give him a weird look.

"Fourth offence" and "vandalism" are definitely not the three words I would use to describe Martin.

"Now what are your parents numbers? Martin we already have yours in the records," one of the officers ask.

We give him our parents numbers, well, Mr and Mrs Brown's and then are escorted to another room.

After waiting in the dead silent room for six hours Mr and Mrs Brown arrive… furious.

They give us a LONG lecture about responsibility.

"Who's idea was this?" Mr Brown asks NOT amused.

No one answers.

"You are all grounded for a whole month. That party was out of hand. You promised us you wouldn't do anything like this." Mrs Brown booms. I've never seen her this angry.

"Do you even know what was going on there? You had people dealing drugs there, that's what," Mr Brown continues.

They go on and on about all that sort of stuff for like two hours, so I won't bore you with all that.

Martins mum came into the station not long after that lecture finished. I don't think she was that shocked to see him there. The police informed her of the drugs going around at the party and his mum gave him a short, but harsh, lecture. I could her snippets of it.

"You know how I feel about drugs and out of control parties, you've seen first hand what they can do to someone. Martin, dear, please don't get yourself mixed up in all that sort of stuff, please. I don't want what happened to me to happen to you."

Martin walks out of the station with his mum. He looks kind of, disappointed, in himself maybe.

His mum looks back and for the first time makes eye contact with me. She takes a quick breathe in and looks at me for a while. I have to look away. She look familiar, I know your thinking "not again" but this time, I know where I've seen her… that phoenix place from when I skipped school. She was there. She must have recognised me.


	16. Chapter 16

The house has been so quite lately, probably cause of us being grounded and all, but still, no one's said a thing except "pass the salt" or "is there anyone in the bathroom".

I haven't seen Martin since then. I sort of miss him. He'd always come around and Me, Harry and him would all just sit around and hang. This one time we were talking about our childhood and how Harry used to go up to randoms and just latch onto their legs.

I, personally, didn't say anything (no duh) but neither did Martin. He just kept fiddling with his fringe and the left side of his face.

I open my laptop (the one the Browns gave me) and log into Tumblr. I go through my dash, laughing every now and again. Suddenly, I come across a quote that really hits me. "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you then it was meant to be."

I don't know what it is, but something about that quote id drawing me in. it won't get out of my head. It keeps hammering and hammering, waiting for something to click.

I go through the day doing the usual stuff. Eating, breathing and daydreaming. Instead of my usual daydreams I skip forward a few years. I'd usually daydream about Finn's birthday, except Mouse doesn't get hurt and we all live happily ever after.

It's now, the present time, and I'm just sitting alone on my bed, doing nothing, when all of a sudden I hear a tapping on my window. I open it and see Mouse holding out his hand. I creep out the window and we go on wild adventures around London. We visit the London Zoo, secretly feeding the lions whilst the keeper isn't looking. We visit abandoned playgrounds and sit on the swings for hours talking about life and how boring it is without the other one in it.

Tap, tap, tap. There's that window again, oh, wait, that already happened, now where was I. We took off, running through the busy streets, stopping to buy little trinkets and things.

Tap, tap, tap. There's that noise again. I didn't think that, where's it coming from.

I come out of my trance to find it's already night-time.

Tap, tap, tap. Where IS that noise coming from. I look around my room but I don't see anything.

Tap, tap, tap. It's coming from the window. I pull the curtains back to see Martin sitting on a tree branch. I open the window and glare at him.

"Only took you three hours for you to hear me," he says sarcastically.

I give him my what-are-you-doing-here look.

"Oh come on Morgan." He says holding out his hand.

What happened to it not being safe at night? Oh, well. It's only Martin. I mean, he waited outside my window for three hours and I'm not going to leave him out there by himself. I take the hand that's offered and climb down the tree.

"So, how's being grounded like?" he asks.

"It's boring," I say blankly. And yes, you read right, I spoke, get over it.

Martin looks at me in amazement. "Hey, it's really hard to find a look that says it's boring as fudge being grounded and that no one is talking to anyone," I say.

"Well your voice is really pretty,"; ha says shyly. I shrug as a thankyou.

"You didn't get grounded then?" I ask.

"Nah, my mum left me with a warning, but if I do anything related to drugs again then I'm gonna get a whooping. She helps out at a place for recovering drug addicts, so she doesn't want me getting mixed up in all of that. But the funny thing is that the drugs going round were like weed and dope and stuff so you would've smelt it."

"Oh, well, I don't know about anyone else but my parents used to dope and stuff so I don't usually pick up the scent."

"Same, back in my parents hippie days when they went to festivals they'd have cans of it and when the police came they'd hid it all and tried not to breathe so much."

"Ha , so did mine," I laugh. It surprises me how much we have in common. "I hated it though."

We walk along the dark street of London together, talking about the randomest of things. I haven't spoke this many words in a long time.

"Hey, do you want to see my house?" he asks.

"Sure, why not," I reply.

"It's nothing compared to yours, technically it's not even a house. It's got more of an apartment feel to it." `

"So it's basically an apartment, yes?"

"Depends on your perspective," he says shrugging his shoulders, " I mean, to the rats in the air-ducts it's a home."

"There's a difference between a house and a home. A house is a building you live in, a home is a place where you can be yourself, where you can love and be loved back." Yeah, I love my quotes. He thinks about this for a moment then says, "So I don't live in an apartment?"

"No, you live in apartment but it's your choice whether you want to make it your home. Fill it with the people you enjoy being with, people you care about and who care about you." "Yeah well, in this block, you only care about one thing, and that's yourself."

"You mean I have to learn self-defence if I ever want to visit you," I say sarcastically.

"Nah, I'll protect you my smorgie morg-" he says but cuts himself off.

No ones says anything for a while until I break the silence. "My friend used to call me that." that friend being Mouse.

We stop outside four high-rise buildings.

"That ones Eagle Heights, Skylark Rise and mine, Nightingale House," he tells me.

"What's the fourth one called?" I ask.

"Dunno, can't remember, another birds' name probably."

There's something about this place that's familiar, like I've been here before.

"I live on the ninth floor so we'll need to take the elevator."

"Race you to the buttons," I yell bolting around a corner.

I stop at the elevator and catch my breath before claiming my prize, to press the button.

I automatically push the button exactly 27 times. I don't know why, but I do.

"Hey, wait up, you'll get lost," Martin yells, catching up to me. "Well you found this place very quickly. But I bet you didn't know that you had to press the button 27 times for it to work."

Just then the elevator doors open and we get in. Martin looks at me, confused. "How'd you do that?" he asks. I shrug, cause I have no idea how to answer that. It was probably just a fluke that I pressed it 27 times out of any number in the world, 27, that must have been luck.

We get off at floor nine and Martin automatically stands next to me, "The last time I brought a girl here she was scared shit-less, but you seem fine, almost casual."

Instead of the usual greeting I get licked to death by a little white dog with a black patch over his eye. Wait a second, I've seen this dog before just not as grown up as this, younger maybe, a pup? The name Stupid keeps running through my head.

"What's his name?" I ask.

"Lucky, his name's Lucky." Well, I guess it's not the same dog.


	17. Chapter 17

Nobody else is awake being almost one in the morning. There's the usual party goers blasting their music way too loud and the occasional car screech, toot or crash, but what do you expect from a place that scared a first-timer shit-less.

I get a lot of affection from Stu- I mean Lucky. He really is a cute dog, like a pirate with a patch.

"He seems to love you," Martin says whilst I pat Lucky softly on the head.

"You're a beautiful doggy aren't you," I tell Lucky, "Where did you get him?"

"Oh him, he was a stray till I took him home. He looked really sick when I found him, but now he's a-okay."

I pat Lucky's head. It was awkward silence for a bit till I asked a stretching question, "So, uh, you and Sam eh."

"What, oh, you saw that?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"I swear it was an accident, she springed it on me. She was drunk and pushy… and drunk… I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologising to me?" I ask.

"I, er, I thought that if you saw me with her then you'd think that I liked her or something." I look at him confused and he continues, "Well, if you thought that I didn't like you then I couldn't do this." He gives me a quick, shy kiss. "Sorry, sorry. Your not going to sue me for sexual harassment are you? It was a spur of the moment thing, sorry…" He says blushing.

"You REALLY need to stop apologising, seriously."

He looks into my eyes and then rap his arm around my shoulders. I lean into his chest and start to drift into sleep.

* * * * * * * * "Lucky, seriously. Lucky stop. Urg, Lucky, that's disgusting," I say, still half asleep.

Lucky starts whimpering and I give him a little cuddle to calm him down, but he continues to whine.

"What is it boy," I ask. He goes and sits on Martin's lap, whom is curled in the corner of the couch, shivering. He looks really pale.

I shake him awake, by this point I'm actually really scared, I've never seen him like this.

"Martin, Martin, wake up."

He suddenly sits bolt upright. He's got beads of sweat around his hairline and is panting heavily.

Out of no where he pulls me into a gigantic hug and whispers into my ear, "Oh my gosh Morgan. Your ok, that's all that matters."

I pull him to arms length. Tears start to roll down his cheeks. I wipe them away and hold him close. "Hey, hey. It's alright," I say. I look into his bloodshot eyes, tears still streaming, body still trembling.

He holds me tight and sniffles. "It seemed so real," he whispers, "I could feel the flames, smell the smoke."

Smoke? I sniff. Smoke? SMOKE! I can smell smoke, why can I smell smoke?!

Lucky starts scratching at the door leading to the veranda. Martin's composed himself and has gone to see what's up with him. He can obviously smell it too, the fear in his eyes says more than any words could.

I hear Martin cuss under his breath as we stare out at the horrific scene. I start to hyperventilate. I can talk about it, write about it and even look at pictures but the real thing is way to much.

Images of Finn's birthday flash before me. The stunt gone wrong, the silhouettes of bodies printed on a red and orange canvas, the after math, that was the worst.

Martin's mum comes running in with just her pjs on. She's surprised to see me, but even more surprised to what was outside.

The Phoenix, the place where Martin's mum works, the place where that scumbag threatened her with a knife, has burnt to the ground.

The sounds of sirens can be heard in the distance, but they're not going to get anywhere, all that's let of the Phoenix is a pile of ash.

I look over at Martin's mum, tears streaming down her face. That place was probably everything to her. From what Martin has told me, she must have put her heart and soul into it.

As I turn my gaze to the once was Phoenix I feel a hand slip into mine. I look down at my hand and then trace the arm up until I'm looking into Martin's murky blue eyes. He can obviously sense my fear.

"Come on kids, lets not look at this any longer than we have to," Martin's mum says, shakily. She leads us to the kitchen where she pours us some milk. I take mine and sit at the table with Martin.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"Why, none of this is your fault," Martin says. He's right though, technically I didn't do anything physically, but there's something about this situation that's making me feel like I've contributed in someway.

"Mouse is right dear, it wasn't your fault. If anything it was ours. We shouldn't have called the cops on Scully."

"Mouse?" I ask, a slight bit of joy in my tone. Just saying his name makes me happy.

"Uhh," she says looking at Martin. "I meant Martin. You know, mouse, Martin, all sounds the same. Just a slip of the tongue.

"Scully?" I ask. That name also seems to ring bells. Not as vivid as a bell as Mouse's but a bell none the less.

I look down at my hand which has started to throb. Even though it was a while ago my hand still hasn't healed properly. Hang on a sec, my hand, the cut, the knife, that must have been Scully. But Scully would never do that, would he. Wait, I don't even know the guy, how could I make that asumption of him. The only asumption I should be making of him is that he's an a-class asshole (calling him that still doesn't feel right) for burning down a building because someone called the cops on him for completing a crime… I'm majorly confused now.

I take a look at the big grandfather clock hidden behind an equally big plant thing. Shit, it's almost six in the morning, I've got to get back!

I say my quick goodbyes and give lucky a short cuddle. I try to avoid running past the reminance of the Phoenix in my dash to get home in time. I pass some shifty looking guys who give me a strange look and some pollies not to far away.

I finally reach the Brown's house were I climb back up the tree (receiving a couple of good scratches). Thankfully, I don't think anyone's awake.

Just as I put my leg over the window sill my bedroom door swing open. Standing there is a naked (well, half naked. He has boxers on) Harry.

"Were have you been?" he asks, a slither of worry in his voice.

"No where in particular," I say, now fully in my room. "How'd you even know I was out?"

"Uh, well, this is gonna sound really weird, but I like to come in and check on you at night. I'm not like a peto or anything, it's just that I've heard you cry in your sleep and you're the closest thing to a sister I have. Don't get me wrong I love Sam, but lately she's been more like a roommate. We don't even know really talk to each other. I can't remember the last time we laughed together." Wow… that was REALLY deep.

"Well, you're the best step/half/foster/what ever you are brother I've had," I say giving him a huge.

It's a long hug but It's good to have some form of true family here.

"You were out with Martin, weren't you?" he whispers in my ear just before letting go and walking back to his own room.


End file.
